Weight-Based Shipping: A Complete Guide for Store Owners

When it comes to figuring out the shipping cost of a product on a WooCommerce store, one crucial method that often comes into play is weight-based shipping. 

In this guide, we will deeply dive into how weight impacts the final shipping cost and other relevant factors. Whether you’re just beginning your journey or already running your online store, this comprehensive guide is here to help you unravel the details of weight-based shipping. 

Let’s jump in!

What is the Weight-based Shipping Method in WooCommerce?

In this shipping method, the total shipping expenses are calculated based on the weight of the package. A perfect way to offer customers transparent shipping costs, weight-based shipping is mostly used by an online store that deals in heavy-weight products or products with varied weights. 

This shipping method promotes customer satisfaction and reduces the cart abandonment rate by charging a shipping fee that is fully justified according to the product.

How Does Product Weight Can Change the Shipping Price?

The product weight greatly influences the shipping cost of a shipment. From the kind of packaging a product demands to extra shipping care, product weight plays a great role in deciding all these factors that further finalize the shipping cost.

Let’s try to decode the effect of weight on the final shipping cost.

1. The Cost Applied by Shipping Carriers May Change

Depending upon the product weight, the cost of the applicable shipping carrier will vary as well. Different shipping carriers will have different pricing structures according to the package weight. 

Shipping heavier packages is likely to be pocket-heavy compared to light packages, as heavy packages will require extra packaging, consume more fuel during transport, and are challenging to handle. 

2. Countries Set Rules by Product Weight

When we talk about international shipping, the weight of the package has a great role to play in deciding the shipping cost. The imposed duties, taxes, and shipping fees vary based on the product’s weight.

3. Weight Can Change the Parcel Size 

For accurate WooCommerce shipping calculation, store owners generally use a combination of weight and dimensional weight (volume) while calculating shipping charges. 

A product might be lightweight, but it can occupy a huge space in the delivery vehicle because it’s huge. Hence, it will eat up the space of many small but heavy-weight parcels. 

4. The Weight of the Product Decides the Special Handling Care

Some heavy-weight products will ask for extra cushioning and padding to prevent damage during transit. This also impacts the final shipping expenses.

In a nutshell, weight impacts the final shipping fee extensively, and adopting WooCommerce shipping based on weight is the easiest way to make sure that the charged shipping fee is justified, accurate, and fair.

How to Apply Shipping Cost by Product Weight?

Interested in unleashing the power of WooCommerce shipping by weight? Try using the Advanced Flat Rate Shipping plugin by DotStore. Developed to promote accurate WooCommerce shipping calculation, this plugin can define the shipping rules based on different criteria.

For instance, alongside the weight, you can define shipping rules according to the:

• Total cart weight and product weight
• Location of the shipping
• User preferences
• Product category
• Total product quantity
• SKUs of the products
• Destination location, and so on.

For example, if you wish to charge a particular shipping cost for a parcel weighing above 4 pounds when its recipient is in the United States, this set of shipping method rules need to be applied.

Similarly, if you want to apply a shipping condition for a parcel weighing above 4 pounds and with a height above 15 inches, try adding these rules to the Flat Rate Shipping plugin’s settings.

You can also try setting up more rules related to quantity, width, height, length, volume, coupon, shipping class, and so on. 

As the plugin has 100% WPML compatibility, its usage will be smooth and seamless. To make things easier for you during your WooCommerce shipping based on weight, the plugin offers:

• Ability to create custom shipping costs based on counties, postcodes, and states 
• Facility to combine all the shipping methods or customize them according to the needs of the hour 
• AND or OR shipping rules 
• Multiple language support 

All-in-all, there is nothing that you cannot do with the Flat Rate Shipping plugin when it comes to weight-based shipping. This plugin is here to ensure you don’t have to use a separate WooCommerce shipping calculator to add accuracy to your weight-based shipping efforts. It will do all of it. 

We gave you 2 great examples of where you can apply the shipping rules created using this plugin in the real world, but the scenarios in which it can be used are in the hundreds.

Want to know about a few more weight-based shipping scenarios where this plugin can help your store?

Not an issue. Let’s discuss a few more use cases next.

1. Applying Incremental Shipping Charges for a Condition

Suppose you’ve to charge your customer a fixed rate WooCommerce shipping fee of $5 for every product between 4-10 KG with an additional fee of $0.5 per kg. This is what you need to set up the WooCommerce shipping calculation for this requirement: 

2. Setting Different Shipping Charges for Different Product Weights

Want to create a quick table of product weights and specify different costs per range?

Yes, that’s possible. Store owners have to define different shipping rules for different weight categories, and we will explain how they can do this. 

• Select the shipping rule you want to edit or create a new one.
• Scroll down to the bottom of this rule and enable the Advanced Shipping Price Rules option.
• Click on the Cost on Product Weight tab.
• Add the weight ranges for your product(s) along with the price for each of these ranges.

The same can be done for total cart weight, tag weight, shipping class weight, and category weight too.

Just for your information, this type of advanced shipping price rule is also called table rate shipping rule in WooCommerce’s terms.

3. Configuring a minimal shipping cost for low-weight products/cart

Suppose you have to set up a WooCommerce shipping calculator for a cart weight value less than or equal to 5 lbs with a basic shipping charge of $10. 

Here is what you have to do: Just add a shipping method rule that checks if the cart weight is less than or equal to 5 lbs. Specify the shipping charge for this rule as $10/.

How to Hide Shipping Rules by Product Weight?

How the WooCommerce shipping calculator works for you to decide the WooCommerce shipping based on weight is something that you should know. Your customers shouldn’t be worried about it. 

It confuses them and makes the interface highly cluttered. This is why WooCommerce store experts recommend using the Hide Shipping Method For WooCommerce. 

This is a great way to keep the WooCommerce shipping by weight limited to yourself and use the 3rd party services easily. Its Hide Shipping Method Rule Based on Order Weight setting will help you hide the shipping methods and use them secretly. 

This is how you can use this plugin for your WooCommerce shipping based on weight and hide the shipping method. 

Step 1: Access your WooCommerce store and go to WooCommerce > Hide Shipping > General Settings > Conditional Hide Shipping Method Rules. Select Save Changes. 

Step 2: Go to WooCommerce > Hide Shipping > Manage Rules > ‘Add New’. 

Step 3: Give a title to your hide shipping rule and define the asked domains. You have to define status, select shipping source, select shipping method, apply the extra rule, start date, end date, days of the week, and select order weight and time. You need to save all these changes after entering the details. 

You can add any conditions related to location, cart, product properties, product attributes, user, and payment method to each of your hide shipping rules. 

As the plugin is available with a free version, you can go ahead and give it a try without any fear. There is also an option to try a demo in case you do not want to install this plugin directly on your store.

Final Words! 

WooCommerce shipping based on weight is one of the most laudable strategies WooCommerce store owners should make to ensure that the shipping process is highly streamlined and the shipping fee is fully justified. 

To make it possible and ensure that the WooCommerce shipping calculator is doing things the right way, grab Advanced Flat Rate Shipping and Hide Shipping for WooCommerce by DotStore. These plugins are wonderful and are here to make things easy for WooCommerce stores.  Go and give them a try.